On June 30, 1908, an explosion over Siberia killed reindeer and flattened trees. Scientists now believe it was a small comet or asteroid.
In a remote part of Russia, a fireball was seen streaking across the daytime sky. Within moments, something exploded in the atmosphere above Siberia’s Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.
This event – now widely known as the Tunguska event – is believed to have been caused by an incoming meteor or comet, which never actually struck Earth but instead exploded in the atmosphere, causing what is known as an air burst, three to six miles (5–10 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.
The explosion released enough energy to kill reindeer and flatten trees for many kilometers around the blast site. But no crater was ever found.
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